On its tenth anniversary since its revival in 1997, and its 57th anniversary since its inception in 1949, Outlook is undergoing a major overhaul, starting with the layout of this issue.

The changes, however, did not end at design. Outlook is now recruiting new staff writers who bring in a variety of ideas and act as an across-the-university team that reports on events from Bliss Hall to Bechtel to Boustani dorms. Outlook’s office is open next Monday for all students who have something to say and feel Outlook is the right venue.

We have also raised editorial standards: we now have a competent, motivated team that has started the year with zeal and desire for perfection. Our aim is to dig deep into those issues and try to illustrate the problem and suggest ways for improvement.

During this week, Outlook will be launching a new website in its attempt to keep up with technology and to keep the community and AUB alumna close to the weekly news of their alma matter. The new website should be set up next week. Yet all this does not come without difficulty. The times that we were faced with shortage of resources, delay in coming out due to reasons related to the publishing house, AUB red tape, and the inconvenience of shifting the tasks and basic details from the former editor-in-chief to the present one, were not infrequent. Last year’s elections of the editor-in-chief of Outlook included much political bickering; and it ended in no real, appropriate succession from one editor to the next. The tragic summer events have also forced Outlook, like all other organizations in this country, to fall behind schedule. The new Outlook was supposed to come out in its current design on the first issue. Delays, however. forced us to wait until the second one.

In addition to these impediments, we constantly found ourselves learning from our own modest experience, with no real training from professional journalists and no journalism department that can guide us in our weekly production experience. The voluntary nature of our work makes it hard for us to maintain momentum during times of midterms and final exams, when Outlook takes from us the time that we would otherwise give our studies.

But all the time and effort we put into producing this weekly newspaper pays off on Tuesday morning when the issue comes out. The final product revitalizes our energy for yet another week, in our efforts to keep Outlook from the students, by the students, and for them.

It is the time to start to reap the fruits of the continuous, hard work of the Outlook team and the incessant support from Chairperson of Outlook and Dean of Student Affairs Maroun Kisirwani, Responsible Director of Outlook Ibrahim Khoury, Director of Student Affairs Wadad El-Husseiny, and Assistant Dean Talal Nizameddin for their constant assistance to Outlook and their unrelenting willingness to help and provide us with the resources we need. Many thanks also to Ahmad Yassine, Tarek Daou, Halim Azar and Sami Shatila for staying late with us late on weekends in West Hall to ensure that we meet our weekly deadlines.

The beginning of the tenth anniversary has so far witnessed encouraging feedback from students and faculty; our persistent strive for perfection secures an assuring progress.